them and their nests. But sagebrush is in retreat
everywhere. Massive overgrazing a century ago
cleared the way for invasive grasses that now fuel
devastating fires in the western part of the bird’s
range. Roads and subdivisions, transmission
lines, farms, gas fields, and wind turbines—all
disrupt what was once an unbroken sea of sage.
Preserving sagebrush for grouse would help
other animals that depend on the same habitat,
such as pronghorn, mule deer, pygmy rabbits,
and burrowing owls. But it might prove costly
to ranchers, miners, oil and gas developers,
and real estate brokers. In 2015 then President
Barack Obama’s administration brokered what
it hailed as a historic collaboration among those
competing interests. Now President Donald
Trump’s administration is weakening provisions
that steered oil and gas drilling away from areas
that had been reserved for sage grouse.
It’s the age-old battle between those who want
to preserve western lands and those who want
to extract a living from them—only in this case,
the burden falls on a comical, knee-high bird. As
the sage grouse goes, so goes the West.
ONE OF THE BIGGEST FACTORS in the grouse’s
decline these days may be the astonishing
increase in natural gas production in places
such as the Green River Basin, south of Pinedale,
Wyoming. In 1984, when biologist John Dahlke
first visited, the basin contained sagebrush, a
few fence posts, some two-track roads, and
not much else—except the largest known win-
ter concentration of sage grouse. They would
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